It wouldn’t be Father’s Day without Turner Classic Movies’ annual broadcast of patriarch-themed classic films. One of the most popular is 1947’s “Life with Father,” based on a book of humorous stories written by Clarence Day, Jr., a decade before the film. TCM will be airing the feature June 19.

Produced by Warner Bros., and directed by Michael Curtiz, “Life with Father” stars William Powell who is widely remembered for portraying the witty, charming, and sophisticated ex-detective Nick Charles in six Thin Man films with Myrna Loy. He was enormously popular with movie audiences during his 30 year career, being nominated for three Best Actor Oscars.

While Powell plays Clarence Day, Jimmy Lydon appears as Clarence Day, Jr., the oldest of his four sons. Lydon, who turned 93 in May, appeared in hundreds of movie and TV roles. He also worked behind the camera as a director and producer and has fond memories of “Life with Father.”

“We worked for four and a half months on that picture,” recalled Lydon. “Mr. Warner wanted to spend all the money in the world on it and take his time to produce a prestige piece for Warner Bros. He paid a million dollars just for the rights to the story, which was a lot of money in the 1940s. It was the most expensive picture Warner Bros. had made at the time, costing around $4.5 million. So he hired Bill Powell, Irene Dunne, a very young Elizabeth Taylor, and myself.”

Jimmy Lydon tries to impress Elizabeth Taylor with his violin skills in a scene from 'Life with Father'.(Photo: submitted)

“Life with Father” was also filmed in expensive 3-strip Technicolor, a process that required three bulky cameras. “The cameras were huge, about the size of three giant suitcases,” said Lydon. “Before each shot, the cameraman had to open each one and check to make sure there were no hairs or dust on the lens. It was very distracting in some scenes.”

Despite the filming difficulties and working with four young, energetic boys, Lydon says Powell was patient and professional.

Jimmy Lydon looks on at William Powell in a scene from 'Life with Father'.(Photo: submitted)

“We had a father and son ‘birds and the bees’ scene together. Bill had about two pages of long dialogue in which he explained everything about girls – everything, that is, but sex! And I had just one line in the middle of his long monologue. So we rehearsed the scene, then began to shoot. Now I’m a quick study, and had plenty of theater experience, so I rarely flubbed my lines. But with all the camera distractions, every time Bill would get through two-thirds of his long speech, I’d mess up my lines. I could see the bile rising up in Mike Curtiz’s face!”

Powell, however, was understanding. “He said ‘Listen Jim. All actors have times like this in their lives, and this was your day.’ He was just so gracious about the whole thing. So we wrote my lines on a piece of black cardboard with chalk, and finally shot the scene.”

In addition to Powell, Lydon has vivid memories of the volatile director.

“Mike Curtiz was a wonderful, crazy, marvelous man. He could barely speak English and had a violent temper. If anything went wrong, he would sometimes stand in the middle of the set and scream at the top of his lungs: ‘Who gets the big dough, you or me?’ And he’d never go to lunch. So when the actors would come back from eating, he’d be mumbling ‘Damn no good actors, why do you always have to feed your faces?’ But when you got used to him, he was wonderful, just the most marvelous director.”

Lydon recalls the porch scene in which he and Elizabeth Taylor had a few playful, romantic moments. “I was wearing father’s suit and couldn’t do anything in it that father wouldn’t approve of. Elizabeth had to jump on my lap and then I had to brush her off because she was sitting on my father’s trousers!”

Taylor, who was only 14 years old, just wasn’t getting it right, according to Lydon.

“By the eighth take, the director had had enough and started screaming. Poor Elizabeth began to cry and ran off the set to her dressing room, which was in a trailer outside the sound stage.”

Warner Bros. was then treated to “a most wonderful spectacle,” says Lydon, as Curtiz followed the distressed Taylor out and unleashed a mixture of rage and regret.

“Here’s this great, huge man who looked like a wrestler, with not a hair on his head, pacing up and down in front of Elizabeth’s dressing room screaming at the top of his lungs and swearing like a marine. ‘Son-of-a-bitch! Don’t cry, damn it! You break my heart – I kill myself – I’m sorry!’ Well, that was Mike Curtiz.”

If Curtiz was seeing red during filming, it may not have been entirely due to anger. The real Day family – father, mother, and boys – were all redheads. So naturally the producers wanted a similarly crowned cast.

“I was the only natural redhead,” said Lydon. “We were all sent to Westmore Salon on Sunset Boulevard every second Sunday to get our hair dyed – including me! Kind of odd to have a red-haired kid dye his hair red, but it had to do with the lighting and cameras, and everyone had to have the same shade of red hair.”

"Life with Father" was Irene Dunne’s only color feature film. Like Powell, she would receive multiple Oscar nominations (five) throughout her career, without a win. But according to Lydon, she was not as easy to work with.

Jimmy Lydon and Irene Dunne in a scene from 'Life with Father'.(Photo: submitted)

“I’d rehearse a scene with her and she was very professional, but I found her to be a cold, distant woman. As a fellow actor, I couldn’t see anything there – she showed no emotion.”

What surprised Lydon was viewing Dunne’s scenes during the daily rushes, when he was allowed to attend.

“She was absolute magic – it was all there, up on the screen. She had the most marvelous motion picture technique. She knew what to do with just the wink of an eye or the touch of a hand, things I didn’t notice when we were doing the scene. She had the technique like no other woman I have ever worked with.”

Lydon also remembers Powell’s wife, Diana Lewis, visiting the set.

“He called her Mousie and she was the most beautiful girl you ever saw in your life. We were all fascinated by her and we thought the marriage wouldn’t last because she was so much younger than him. But she was with him for the rest of his life.”

Powell died in 1984, 30 years after making his final film, “Mister Roberts.”

“He was just a delight to work with,” adds Lydon, “a very easy going and a wonderful gentleman.”

Nick Thomas teaches at Auburn University at Montgomery, and has written features, columns, and interviews for over 600 magazines and newspapers. See tinseltowntalks.com.